


Wooden Floorboards

by sadmarchhare



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Beta Read, Horror, Other, first time writting horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:13:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23740615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadmarchhare/pseuds/sadmarchhare
Summary: Statement of Alfie Gray, regarding the time he lived in an apartment in Bristol. Original statement given June 23rd, 2012. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.





	Wooden Floorboards

**Author's Note:**

> this is honestly just me training writting horror because i have other fics planned although not tma related :(

-Archivist 

Statement of Alfie Gray, regarding the time he lived in an apartment in Bristol. Original statement given June 23rd, 2012. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London. 

-Archivist (Statement) 

One of my biggest faults is, I run away from my problems. I can admit that, I’ve done it all my life. And as much pain as it can bring at times, I think it’s really the only way to solve a problem. I’ve lived a little bit everywhere in England for that exact reason. I mean if moving to another city won’t let me leave some problems behind, what will? 

I’d also say I'm a very anxious person, a lot of things make me nervous and when I say a lot, I really mean a lot. At this point in my life I've gotten pretty used to it I mean if I hadn’t, I would probably be either dead or on an asylum by now. A lot of what all my worries create turns into real things, I mean I know they aren’t real but for me they are. What those things are, are usually hallucinations although I wouldn’t call them that because I know I'm the one creating them. 

A lot of those “hallucinations” are auditive, sure I've also gotten some visual ones but usually it’s just voices. Like I said I had gotten used to them, my heart beating faster, me sweating and hearing things had become just a thing that happened. I’m aware I shouldn’t have done that I should have gotten help but that idea wasn’t one that crossed my mind. 

Since like I said I move a lot I know a lot of people but none of them are close enough to me that I'd consider telling them about my very distressing anxiety. Meaning I had no one to really force me or just encourage me to get help plus you know, like I said I also run away from my problems so I guess even if someone forced me to get help I simply wouldn’t. 

But anyway, it was around October that I moved to Bristol, I moved simply because I hated the things I started associating where I used to live in London. Every time I got a panic attack, I remembered the exact place that happened so at some point everywhere in places I went to everyday like my workplace began to turn into a kind of trigger. 

The new place I got in Bristol was honestly pretty good, it was a spacious apartment with a living room that had a huge window, I loved it. The only thing that was a bit of a disappointment so to speak was the fact that the whole house had wooden floorboards except the bathroom. And you think well that isn’t so bad at least the bathroom doesn’t have wooden floorboards but can u imagine a wooden floor in a kitchen? That part of the house really bothered me, not enough for me to move out but enough for me to put a big carpet in the kitchen. 

A month had passed since I moved there and honestly, I was really enjoying it besides my little anxiety problem, the apartment was nice my new job in the supermarket like 10 minutes away from my house was just enough for me. At my new job I got to meet two people that worked there with me, Janette and Dalton. Both were incredibly nice and two days in my new job they were already joking around with me. 

One day though something happened, my day had started ordinarily, I got up ate breakfast and got dressed for work. However, when I was leaving the door wouldn’t open. I didn’t get too panicked at first, like I said I'm a very anxious person so sometimes I can’t do things properly at first because I'm shaking or sweating without even noticing. So, I took a deep breath and tried opening it again and it did. Obviously, I brushed that incident off as my anxiety being the cause. 

But that started happening every day and everyday a new thing wouldn’t open. First it was the front the door, the it was the front door and the kitchen cabinets, then it was the front door, the kitchen cabinets and the bathroom cabinets. Until one day and nothing in my house opened. No matter how much I ran around nothing opened. This time I didn’t even consider my anxiety because there was no way I couldn’t open anything in my house. And suddenly a sound. As I ran to the front door again something made a noise in the floorboards. I couldn’t identify which room it came from. 

It sounded exactly like something was hitting the floorboards from bellow. As in something was under them. For a moment I thought it was those things I mentioned I usually hear but like I said I can tell when they are made by me and this sounded, real, too real. 

I think I heard around five thuds before the front door opened and I was able to go to work. I went to work in a cold sweat and tried to rationalize what just happened and although at home I felt what was happening was real at work I simply convinced myself that it was just my mind playing tricks on me. And it really made sense for me you know maybe my anxiety finally turned into a full-on psychosis. 

However exactly three days after that happening it happened all over again. Nothing in my house opened and I started hearing thuds after trying to open everything. This time around though I tried to localize the sound so, thud, I went to the living room. Thud, I went to my room. Thud, I realized it came from the kitchen. 

Sweating and with my heart beats ringing in my ears, I rolled the carpet I had on the kitchen floor. And I looked at the floor. Nothing. But the sound was there. I could feel my own heart beating faster and I had no idea what to do. I started feeling dizzy but I had to do something. The beating was the only thing I heard at this point and I was going crazy. 

I kicked the floor and whatever it was just started hitting faster and for a moment I feared something was trying to break free from the floorboards. And after that the last thing I remember was fainting. After what was apparently my whole shift Janette came to check on me and that’s what I woke up to, the sound of my doorbell ringing. Obviously when I woke up the first thing, I did was look at the floor and try to open the cabinets. There wasn’t any noise besides my ragged breath and the cabinets opened. 

I opened the door and as I suspected she was there to check why I missed work. I didn’t tell her anything I simply told her I had a panic attack and said it was simply because someone on my family had died. Yes, I realize now I should have told her what really happened but I never had opened up to anyone and someone I met a month and a half ago wasn’t the exception. 

After that yet another month passed and I was more scared than usual. For that whole month I was even more jumpy than I already was and started having daily nightmares that made me wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. And it was in one of those nights that I heard it again, this time around however the sound was clearly on top of the floorboards. Something was moving around my house and I stood paralyzed in my beard already with both my head and my heart racing. 

I didn’t move an inch I just heard the steps coming closer until I saw something at my door. How do I started describing it... Well it was about the size of a dog like a Labrador or something. I can’t tell you the color exactly but it was dark with barely visible eyes and it stood there I could feel it watching me. Once again, I didn’t move and honestly if I had to, I don’t think I could. It moved closer to the bed and I had the urge to scream but didn’t. 

And in a fleet second it moved and it hit me like how you step on a bug. Like I hit the floorboards in the kitchen. And fuck me if it didn’t hurt. This time I screamed and after that I can’t tell you much more as I think I fainted once again and it was most likely because of the pain added to me being on the edge of ripping my own head off at that point. 

In the morning the pain was still too much so I had to call the hospital and I discovered it was because whatever that thing was had broken two front ribs. A bit more force and it could have fucked up a lung too. I’m sweating just remembering all of this truly a living nightmare. 

After that obviously I made plans to move again. And as I did nothing really happened. Now I live in London once again that’s why I'm here after all. And nothing of the sort has happened since I arrived like three weeks ago. I finally started getting help for my anxiety however and I'm hoping it’s for the best. 

-Archivist

Statement ends. 

Our own investigations into that apartment into Bristol didn’t really turn anything as it seems everything as neither the landlord nor the last tenant seem to have had anything happen to them like this statement describes. 

We got into contact with Alfie Gray however and the only thing he really said was that what he said was a hundred per cent true and obviously he had no one to confirm it. So, I think I can say it’s a case closed when we consider that Mister Gray probably had some specific delusion. 

Although the fact that he was admitted to the hospital with broken ribs it's not unheard-of people with delusions hurting themselves. So, this was nothing but a tale of a lonely person that honestly should have gotten help sooner. 

End recording.


End file.
